XplanaZine

First, here’s our take on news that matters for Tuesday. In a nutshell, the overarching theme is one of things in small packages.

• First, we have news that more and more media companies are experimenting with original programming for mobile phones to increase awareness of their TV shows, and movies. It’s a first step towards the TV shows themselves showing up in our hands.
• There’s also news on the handheld music stage. And Apple isn’t the only company that can release a music phone. Sony Erisscon has announced the release of a 3G Walkman phone. At this point, we may start seeing signs in restaurants that say, “No shirt, no shoes, no MP3 player, no service.”
• Speaking of small, Leap Frog’s FLY Pentop computer hit stores yesterday and it will definitely make a splash for the holidays. Just when you think gadgets can’t do more.
• And it’s a small small world for gaming too. The leader in that arena, Nintendo, announced yesterday that it would be providing wireless service in McDonalds stores so that its users could play a select number of games with other worldwide.
• Regarding other small things, President Bush’s approval ratings dropped to the lowest of his presidency, a mere 39%. On the bright side, it looks like tax forms will be getting smaller too, as will the number of deductions U.S. citizens are allowed to take.
• Finally, not everything is getting smaller. Google announced Monday that it had begun operating local-language sites in eight European countries for its Google Print program, its closely watched effort to make all of the world’s books searchable online, expanding into territories where it has drawn fierce criticism.

Now, here’s a recap of our favorite posts from the edublogging community from the past 48 hours.

• From D’Arcy Norman : Post on Educause podcasts.
• From George Siemens : Post on recent criticism of Google Earth.
• From Jonathan G. Cohen : Post on early adopter demographics.
• From James Farmer : Post on Weblog usability.